If we consider, dearly beloved, the cause of the present solemnity, which commends to us the hope of eternal salvation by the law of the future resurrection, it is not amiss if we pass all these days in gladness, and relax those pursuits of a stricter life. But in this the choir of the rejoicing sometimes displeases me, in that a man thinks that all is now lawful for him, whatever in the season of Lent he had assigned to that religious discipline. Whence there is no doubt to anyone that the preceding services come to confusion, if you know not how to keep whatever you have shown yourself to have procured, by the labour of fastings and vigils, for the purification of the soul.
But quickly does he undo the things that have been procured, who, unmindful of spiritual gifts, acquiesces in carnal desires. For amid the joys of which we have spoken, that way of religious discipline must be held which without doubt insinuates a man of good will to the Lord. And if we knew how to keep toward Him a reverence worthy of His laws, Gehenna would receive no one, the penalty of perpetual death would condemn no one. With all zeal, therefore, dearly beloved, we must act, lest the conscience of a purified body be assailed by the indulgence of too great remissness: not content only with the observance of those days which the yearly care of fastings commends. Although this very observance is proved by some to be displeasing on account of profitless sleep and insatiable gluttony.
For while, urged on by desire, they hasten toward the days of holy Easter, accusing the pursuits of vigils and the goods of continence, they long for feasts after Easter and abundant fastings ceased. As though truly what the days of Lent forbid, the votive solemnity permitted to be done lawfully, and in the release from fasting a license to sin were given. Therefore let no one think that all is now lawful for him because he sees that the times of a stricter life are past. For incautious relaxation is wont to deceive every state of honourable life. Let not that man esteem that anything has been permitted to drunkenness, who sees that at the appointed time fasting has ceased. Let him not believe that the minds of men are consigned to slumber, who sees that continual vigils have been suspended at the coming of the solemnity.
No profitable servant is he who waits for holidays to this end, that he may sleep. Greater solicitude remains for the husbandman after he has by long labour touched the earth. Watch must first be kept, therefore, lest by chance a wild beast should presumptuously claim for itself the seeds committed to the furrows, or a treacherous bird should despise them. It follows that from a place of leisure a well-soaked ditch be led out for the use of water, lest a supervening tempest should either kill or snatch away the sprouting shoots. There is need also that the grasses be plucked, and the dry turf be softened by the working hoe:
and throughout those holidays which the husbandmen claim for themselves, to keep off the mischievous animal by a fence drawn around. For so great is the love of nourishing life, so great the care of provision, so great the zeal of cultivation, that it is not fitting for anyone to be idle even then, when the husbandman commends the ear of grain, its bloom being perfected, to the fruit. For the ripening harvests are wont to be hindered by growing thorns: and those things which are set in hope of maturity are wont to be choked by alien seed. So it must be understood that many things grow by the husbandman's zeal, but the greatest things perish through negligence. But perhaps you say: 'All negligences the solemnity excuses.' Without doubt he lies exposed to all perils who has surrendered his life to negligence at any time whatsoever.
For the reins are never well loosened for horses consigned to idleness. So also, after the rigour of winter, the earth quickly grown drunk with waters runs riot. We see also frequently that ships, near to the harbour, with oars at rest, have rushed by a sudden force into shipwreck. Having regard, then, to these things, most beloved brethren, let us so dispose the order of our life that in the first place we chastise that luxury of feasts, so that the fugitive desires of the flesh may depart from us. I do not, therefore, say this as though we must abstain altogether from food, or spare our cups entirely: for although bodies be made ready for the cross, yet they must always be sustained. It displeases me only that in these days there be insatiable gluttony, and those unfruitful traffickings of the belly:
displeasing is the banquet lavish with drunkenness, and given over to mockery through the whole night. It exceeds indeed the measure of discipline, if anyone drink more than he thirsts. What, then, is so hateful among such men, where, besides the vice of drunkenness, the losses of goods also come together? And who could endure those damages of wine-bibbing, where more is poured out through drunkenness than is drunk? Or who would gladly look upon the furnishing of that dining-hall, in which all things grow foul with the reek of what is being wasted? For where the wine runs over, of necessity the banquet bristles with base squalor, and whatever the full jar has received perishes utterly.
Let him see, therefore, what shall come to pass for him to whom drunkenness is pleasing, and let him wisely accommodate his mind to these things which we are about to say, and he will not with difficulty recognize the cause of his own unhappiness. If you fill a vessel with too much oil, the boiling wave of the vintage runs back to the small mouth, and with foulness vomits back up whatever it has received in excess. We see also frequently, when the wine floods over, vessels of goatskin corrupted, and the earthen jars opening cracks as the waves struggle. Truly nothing would be permitted to death, if the wretched knew to avoid the causes of perishing. But he paves the way of enfeeblement who lays upon weak bodies something more of burden.
So it is that he accomplishes his begun journey but doubtfully, whom the weight of an unjust load burdens. I admonish therefore, dearly beloved, that if anyone purposes to please our Christ, let him in the first place chastise the desires of gluttony, which, with drunkenness serving as its mistress, is wont to be the source of losses. In short, hence come nakedness, hence beggary, hence to some is wont to come needy poverty, Solomon thus saying: 'Every drunkard shall be clothed in rags' (Prov. 23:21). Rather let those fruits of continence persevere in the good, by which one is seen to serve the Lord devoutly and constantly in mind through the days of Lent: lest, when perchance we have surrendered ourselves to be possessed by negligence, we should seem to have rendered the pursuit of an honourable life to the seasons only, and not to our morals.
What does it profit, if you show yourself good to the Lord for forty days, and in one day offend Him by the fury of impious cruelty? What does it avail to have kept the reverence of chastity through long spaces of time, if afterward you be snatched away to a base deed at the prompting of luxury? What does it profit to have for a time cheated covetousness, if after so many fruits of mercy which a bountiful hand has bestowed on you, you take delight in the losses and tears of others? Truly whatever of grace a man has acquired through many years by righteous works perishes, if within the space of one hour he be depraved by any error of a base life whatsoever.
This, therefore, is the rule of the discipline to be kept: that you nourish integrity in yourself, love chastity, cultivate peace, and confound under the fear of discipline all things that serve iniquity; so that mediocrity be not proud toward the superior, nor poverty be despised in the comparison of persons. And as it is a great thing always to have served the better, so it is useful and glorious to be humbled, to have shown reverence to the person of another: because in proportion as a man endowed with dignity is humbled, he is exalted, the Lord thus saying: 'He that exalteth himself shall be humbled; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted' (Matt. 23:12). Above all things, therefore, the way of humility must be chosen by us, which is subject to no hatreds, and always acquires much love, the Apostle thus saying:
'God giveth grace to the humble, but resisteth the proud' (James 4:6). Let him therefore consider, whoever by this kind of wicked toil doubts about the penalty of the future judgment, who sees the penalty of heavenly wrath stirred up against himself. And if anyone forestall it by humility, it will not be difficult that he find in the heavenly seat a place of eternal possession, from which that devil, cast down by the working of pride, received the sentence of perpetual damnation. Let us therefore follow humility, sobriety, continence, chastity; let us labour in the pursuit of obtaining holiness; that our life be shaken by no losses of the soul, and sigh, condemned, under no hatreds ever with the Lord.